


Love in the time of Krakoa

by winter_hiems



Category: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men Legacy
Genre: Age of X-Man (Marvel Comics), Autistic David Haller, Canon Autistic Character, Canon Disabled Character, Canon Jewish Character, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Don't copy to another site, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Feelings, Fix-It, House of X, House of X/Powers of X, Hurt/Comfort, Krakoa, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Powers of x, Resurrection, X-Men Legacy - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23277898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winter_hiems/pseuds/winter_hiems
Summary: When he finds out about the resurrection process on Krakoa, David Haller asks his father to bring back Ruth Aldine. Or else.Meanwhile, Mystique is growing tired of Xavier constantly delaying the resurrection of Irene Adler.This is the story of how David got Ruth back, and how Mystique got Irene back, and how Krakoa reacted to the breach of the precog ban.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier, Irene Adler (X-Men)/Raven | Mystique, Ruth Aldine/David Haller
Comments: 31
Kudos: 35





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **  
> Timeline:  
> **  
>  **12 months before the fic begins:** The clinic where David is being treated is destroyed. David goes on the run and meets Ruth. The events of X-Men Legacy happen.
> 
>  **3 months before:** Nate Grey takes over David’s body and murders Ruth Aldine.
> 
>  **2.5 months before:** David regains control of his body from Nate Grey and finds out about Ruth’s death.
> 
>  **1 month before:** Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr create the mutant nation of Krakoa.
> 
>  **2 weeks before:** The first mutant resurrection occurs on Krakoa.
> 
>  **1 week before:** David finds out about the resurrection and starts to make a plan.

They both waited until the other members of the Quiet Council had left the chamber before they fell into each other’s arms. They didn’t have much time, so it was limited to a few urgent kisses, but it was enough for them to be satisfied for now. Extracting himself from Erik’s embrace, Charles pecked Erik on the cheek and left the chamber. 

He started heading towards the habitat that had come to be known as the ‘House of X’. Erik’s home, the ‘House of M’, was situated on the other side of the island. Their living quarters were separate out of necessity. Setting Krakoa up as a mutant nation and organising the safe transport of thousands of mutants to the island had been taxing enough; neither Charles nor Erik were ready to go public with their relationship. 

One benefit of having Ororo Munroe as a permanent resident was that the weather on Krakoa was always perfect. On his way home Charles enjoyed the balmy sunshine and the soft breeze. At first the island’s vegetation had seemed strange, but after nearly two months of living there he had grown used to the serpentine creepers and jewel-toned flowers. 

He pushed open his front door. Perhaps he’d read a chapter or two of The Once and Future King before he started to prepare lunch. 

“Nice place you’ve got here.” 

Charles whirled and flicked on the light. He knew that voice, but he could barely believe it… 

A slim figure leaned against the wall of Charles’ living room. They stepped into the light. 

“Hello, father. Apologies for not visiting sooner.” 

“David, I…” Charles studied his son. Something was wrong – that much was apparent. In contrast with his mental health issues, David had never been physically ill in his life. He’d never even had a cold. Now, however… David had always been thin but now he was skinny to the point of emaciation, with deep bruises under his eyes. His clothes were scuffed and torn in places. He was swaying slightly on his feet. “Are you alright?” 

David stepped around the couch, closing the distance between them. “Skip the fake-paternal crap. We both know that your fatherly instincts were all used up within a year of you finding out that I was your son.” 

“That’s not–” The words had barely left Charles’ mouth when he was bombarded with images. Every time he’d ever ordered David to be sedated, the years David had spent alone in institutions with no parents to comfort him, the fact that Charles had never quite been able to mask his horror at what kind of child he’d fathered. He was left panting from the onslaught. “I suppose I deserve that.” 

David shot Charles a look of cool disdain. “You’re lucky that I’m not in the mood for revenge. As much as saying it makes me feel physically sick: I need you to do something for me.” 

Hesitantly, Charles drew closer. “That would depend on what you ask for.” 

“No, this isn’t asking. This is striking a deal.” He leaned forward. “Two weeks ago a group of X-Men were killed on a mission. Last week, they’re all miraculously alive again. Somehow you’ve figured out how to bring back the dead.” 

Charles considered his reply carefully. “There is a procedure we’ve developed. It requires a sample of a mutant’s DNA and for a copy of their mind to be stored in Cerebro, but with both, yes, they can be resurrected.” Maybe that was why David was here. Perhaps he wanted to join the mutants on Krakoa and have his mind and genetic makeup added to the collection. 

“I know. I checked the process out before I came here. So here’s the deal,” said David. “I will owe you a favour. Anything you want me to do, I will do it within the realm of basic morality. _Anything._ And in return, the next mutant you resurrect will be Ruth Aldine.” 

When Nate Grey had attempted to begin a new world order using David’s body and powers, Ruth had ended up on the wrong end of a knife. Charles had no idea what David might want with her. Was he looking to right the wrongs that Nate Grey had inflicted on the world in his body, one life at a time? 

“Why her? I didn’t even know that you two knew each other.” 

David’s expression didn’t change from cold hostility. “It doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that I prefer a world where she’s alive to the alternative.” 

Charles was still reeling from the memories that David had thrown at him. Was his son out for revenge? And how would Ruth fit in with such a plot? “I can’t.” 

David’s lip curled in disgust. “Bullshit. You have a sample of her DNA. You have her consciousness stored in Cerebro. There’s nothing stopping you.” 

“It’s policy that no mutant with precognition will be allowed on Krakoa.” 

“I have precognition,” David snapped. “Your stupid little rule has already been broken.” 

“I didn’t know that you were a precog.” How many other abilities had David manifested since Charles had last seen him? It had been over a year. 

“It’s none of your fucking business. Point is, you could resurrect her, but you won’t.” 

“That’s correct.” Charles thought for a second. David couldn’t be detected with Cerebro, and Charles didn’t know any other way of contacting his son. Now might be his only chance. “If you’re sick, we can help you.” 

He frowned. “I’m not sick.” 

“You’re not healthy, either. When was the last time you ate?” 

“I don’t know.” 

“When did you last _sleep_?” 

“’Don’t remember that either.” 

“Jesus, David, you look like you’re dying!” 

“And why would that bother you?” David snapped. “The most you ever did for me was find a new therapist every time one of them quit. Spare me the bullshit. If I was ill, if I was _dying_ , that would probably be a relief to you. Your fucked-up disappointment of a son finally goes away.” David rolled his shoulders like a wrestler preparing for a fight. “So, to clarify, all you’d need to bring Ruth back is a sample of her DNA and access to Cerebro.” 

“Yes. There are five mutants who are involved in the process to recreate the body. And they won’t do it without my permission, which I’m afraid I won’t give.” 

David’s lips twitched upwards in something that was adjacent to a smile. “Bold of you to assume that I’d ask permission. And I don’t think I’ll be needing those five mutants either.” He held his hand out and a small vial dropped from thin air into his palm. Charles could guess what it was: the sample of Ruth’s DNA from the gene bank. 

Whatever David was about to do, Charles knew that he had to stop him. He reached out with his mind and – and – and – 

His body was rooted in place. He couldn’t move a muscle. He tried to use his telepathy, but instead he found an empty space at the back of his brain where his powers were supposed to be. 

Charles watched helplessly as David plucked Cerebro off his head and put it on. 

The vial in David’s hand began to float a few inches in the air, the stopper falling off, and the strand of DNA inside floated out to hover in the centre of the room. 

David raised both his hands, and the strand of genetic material began to multiply and grow. 

The brain formed first, starting as a small lump of grey matter and spreading out into the full organ. It sprouted the spindly strands of a nervous system which wrapped their way around slivers of white which appeared from nowhere before lengthening out into bones. A skull slid up from the top of the spinal column and closed itself over the brain, and then patches of red started to appear; muscle and organs and tendons fitting themselves together. 

Finally the internal structure was complete and pale pink skin started to wrap itself over the body, as well as covering the place where anyone else would have had eyes. 

Lastly, her hair grew; black-brown strands that lengthened until they fell past her shoulders. David twisted the fingertips of his left hand and simple, loose clothes wrapped themselves around the body that he’d grown out of the barest scrap of DNA. 

Charles hoped that David might be distracted enough to forget that he was also trying to keep his father under control, and attempted again to free himself. Ruth’s mind hadn’t been implanted in her body yet; there was still time to stop this. David winced slightly, then shot him a grim smile. “I’m not a kid anymore. You can’t push my psyche around like you used to.” 

Now that the body was complete, David closed his eyes and Charles could feel his mind focusing to put Ruth’s consciousness into the new body. It occurred to Charles then that David had never done this before. He’d started out hoping that David would fail, but now he realised that if David couldn’t bring her back then he might take out his frustration on Charles, or even on Krakoa as a whole. 

But if Ruth was brought back… No, that couldn’t be allowed to happen. 

And even if David did fail and Charles somehow survived the attempt, what would Charles do about David’s precognition? Initially, Charles had planned to knock David out with a psychic blast. If he manage to get into his son’s mind it would be possible for him to wall off the alter which controlled David’s precognition and then David would pose… well, he would still pose a threat, but it would be the same threat as always, not the kind of destruction that a precog could unleash on Krakoa. 

While Charles had been thinking, David had opened his eyes and pulled off Cerebro, letting it fall to the floor carelessly. The body of Ruth Aldine floated to the ground. 

And then it sat up. 

David’s lips parted in awe. 

She looked up at him and croaked: “David?” 

After a delayed reaction, David crossed the distance between them in an eyeblink and wrapped his arms around her. “ _Ruth._ I missed you, darling.” 

“What happened?” 

He pulled back from the hug a little, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You died.” 

“How? I – I don’t remember.” 

“I’ll tell you later. I’m just – I’m just really fucking glad you’re back.” 

Ruth looked around. “Oh, uh, sorry sorry sorry, hey Professor.” Then she frowned. “What did you do to him?” 

Charles tried to cry out for her to help him, free him, but once again found himself unable. 

David slipped an arm around her waist and helped her to her feet. “He didn’t want me to bring you back, so I stopped him from stopping me from resurrecting you. And now you’re back. C’mon, let’s get out of here.” 

The two of them vanished in a burst of gold light, and Charles felt David release him. His body sagged, reeling. 

These were things that Charles thought he knew about David Haller: 

1\. David had barely any control over his powers. 

2\. David hated touching people. 

3\. David never, ever, called anyone darling. 

*

“Erik? Could we talk a moment?” 

Erik rose from behind his desk and crossed the room to Charles, a faint smile on his lips. He rested a hand casually on Charles’ waist and leaned forward. Their lips brushed. “Do you mean ‘talk’ or _‘talk’_?” 

Charles sighed. “Oh, you’ll stop that flirtation once you’ve heard what I have to say.” 

Erik inclined his head. “Go on.” 

“Ruth Aldine was resurrected today.” 

Erik pulled away and turned to look out of the windows. “Dammit Charles, we said no precogs. This could ruin everything! What on earth happened?” 

“Legion came to me before lunch and immobilised me – he’s grown so strong, I had no idea that he’d gained that degree of control over his powers. He took Cerebro and found a sample of her DNA, then he re-grew her body on his own and inserted her consciousness.” 

Erik whirled, shock written into every line of his face. “He resurrected her _on his own_?” 

Charles nodded. “I’ve never seen him so in control of his abilities. There was no sign that he was being controlled by one of his split personalities, which means that the desire to bring her back and the willpower to do it came from the part of his mind that is only David. I just don’t know why he’d want Ruth _specifically_ brought back. He must have some kind of plan – revenge against me, perhaps. God knows I wasn’t a good father. The fact remains that I haven’t seen him in over a year and I don’t have the first clue as to what his motivations are. But you… this past year, you saw him twice, didn’t you?” He paused. “I don’t know who else he was with during that time. Anything you can give me, anything. I just need to understand.” 

“Charles,” said Erik, “Oh Charles, you don’t know the boy at all, do you?” There was a touch of pity in his gaze. 

“I just need to know, Erik.” 

“As far as resurrection stories go, it’s the oldest one in the book.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Orpheus and Eurydice, Charles. David wanted her back because she was his lover.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Usually in my fics I like to make Charles Xavier a sympathetic character, mainly because I tend to write Movieverse Charles Xavier more often than Comicverse. But in this case we have Comicverse Charles Xavier, and he was undoubtedly a bad father to David. I didn’t want to shy away from that. I also wanted Charles to find out that David had fallen in love. I’ll cover his reaction to that discovery in later chapters.
> 
> I don’t like the erasure of Charles’ disability in HoX/PoX so I’m trying to keep things vague enough in this fic that Charles could be viewed as being in a wheelchair (as he should be) or able-bodied (like in comics canon).
> 
> I also changed the circumstances of Ruth’s death from suicide to murder because her suicide in the comics was frankly unjustified. It was bad writing.
> 
> Comments and kudos are always welcome <3
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. The characters are owned by Marvel. I am not profiting financially from this story.
> 
> *
> 
> I never thought that I would thank anyone in the notes of a fic before, but here we are. I wrote this fic ages ago and it sat on my laptop for weeks and weeks because I didn’t think that anyone would want to read it. And then I read CatacombKittens’ fic Blindfold Quest, and… well, at first I was surprised at how similar our premises were. I was very relieved when I realised that the plots were different! But it was nice to know that somewhere in the world there was someone else who wanted to bring David and Ruth and Irene and Mystique together. And if someone had written a fic with a similar premise to mine then perhaps my fic was worth posting after all. So thanks, CatacombKittens. This fic might never have been posted without you.


	2. Chapter 2

David had taken Ruth to the only place he could think of that would have everything they needed: the now-deserted school in Westchester. There was still hot water for the showers, and they found Ruth’s clothes and other belongings in a storage room, where they’d been sealed away after her death. Ruth managed to find David some spare clothes too. The things he’d been wearing when she’d been brought back were almost falling apart. 

After that, hunger brought them to the kitchen. There was still some canned food in the cupboards, so they each brought a tin of spaghetti hoops and a spoon outside so that they could eat on a bench overlooking the lake. While they ate, David talked. He filled her in on everything she either couldn’t remember or had missed. 

Nate Grey taking him over. 

Nate Grey killing Ruth while he wore David’s body. 

David wrestling back control weeks later only to find out that Ruth was gone. 

The foundation of Krakoa. 

The resurrection process. 

During the retelling he couldn’t stop looking at her. He found himself caught up in her presence, this girl he had lost who was alive again. The breeze caught the scent of her hair and blew it his way, intoxicating. 

And then he was done talking, and done eating, too, so he set his can and his spoon on the ground by the bench and said: “So that’s all of it. You’re all caught up.” 

Ruth set her tin down. She was wearing a blindfold now, but David could still tell when she was frowning. “Am I?” 

Now it was David’s turn to frown. “Um, yeah. I’ve told you everything.” 

She shook her head and cupped his face in her palm. He couldn’t help but lean into it. When was the last time someone had touched him so gently? “What happened to you?” 

“I – nothing happened.” 

“You look awful.” 

David gave half a laugh at that. “I know, I know.” 

She dropped her hand from his face, and took his hands in both of hers. “You know I can always tell when you’re hiding something from me. What happened?” 

The guilt came then, as he knew it would. Was this how Catholics felt at confession? He let her hands drop. 

“You died, love. That’s what happened to me. The only person who’s ever loved me exactly as I am, and you were fucking gone, and suddenly I had to live the rest of my life without you. And then, after that, nothing happened. I was speaking literally. I lived in all the lonely, remote places of the world; places miles away from the nearest person, mutant or human. I didn’t eat and the starvation didn’t kill me. I didn’t sleep and the exhaustion didn’t kill me either. If the alters wanted to take me over, I let them. It was worth it to feel nothing for a few hours, and there was no-one around for them to hurt. I only found out about Krakoa by accident. Hikers listening to a radio. If not for that, I would still be out there, lying on a pile of leaves and wondering why I was still alive if you weren’t.” 

At some point he had started to cry, though he wasn’t sure exactly when. He closed his eyes and felt Ruth put her arms around him. As always, their bodies fit together perfectly. Her warmth made him cry harder. “It was my hands that did the deed. If I had been stronger, been able to keep Grey out of my head, you would never have–” 

She held him tighter. “Shh, shh. It’s okay. You’re alive and I’m alive and we’re together and it wasn’t your fault.” Once the worst of the crying had passed, Ruth pulled away slightly. “Do you remember when we first met?” she asked. 

“In Japan? When I was exhausted and starving and freaking out, and then you waltzed into my mindscape like you owned the place? Yeah, I think I remember the details…” 

“I know, but you didn’t stay exhausted or starved. You got better. You looked after yourself.” 

He shrugged. “I had to. You would have noticed if I wasn’t eating.” 

“That’s my point. Have you ever looked after yourself because you wanted to look after yourself? Not because you needed to do it for someone else?” 

“Shit. I – I don’t think I like myself enough to do that. I mean, the only time I’ve ever tried looking after myself was when we got together.” 

She rested her forehead against his. “Please. Please start taking care of yourself again. I want you to do it for yourself, but if you can’t… then do it for me. Please.” 

“Okay. For you.” 

“What do we do now? I don’t think we can go back to Krakoa.” 

David leaned forward and kissed her softly. “We live. I think that we just live.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maintaining a good self-care routine can be hard. Sometimes the only way to make sure you look after yourself is to remember that you don't want your loved ones to worry.
> 
> In the comics they never gave us David’s reaction to Ruth dying, and I wanted to change that. I can’t imagine David being anything other than completely broken up by Ruth’s death.
> 
> As always, I made it so that Ruth doesn’t stammer when she’s alone with David, because she’s perfectly relaxed with him.
> 
> David and Ruth left the tins and spoons out by the bench because they’re teenagers who forget about washing up sometimes.
> 
> As a rule I like to make my chapters at least 1500 words, and this one is significantly shorter than that. I considered merging it with Chapter 1 or Chapter 3, but in the end it didn’t feel organic.


	3. Chapter 3

Mystique had to admit that David Haller and Ruth Aldine had built a nice little life for themselves. 

It had been easy to track them down; they hadn’t even used fake names. She supposed that they were relying on David’s reputation to keep the X-Men away. 

It seemed that Haller had gotten his mother to pull a few strings with the appropriate authorities, because Ruth had obtained a visa that allowed her to finish her high school education at a college in St Andrews, Scotland, while David attended the university there. He was studying astrophysics of all things. 

They had bought a large plot of land not too far from the town, and Mystique assumed that they lived there. She would like to know where they were getting their money: Gabrielle Haller’s bank statements showed that she wasn’t sending money to David, and Charles certainly wasn’t providing for him. 

She had tried to get information out of David’s therapist, but the woman refused to talk, and threatened to call the police if she caught Mystique trying to get at any of her notes on David’s sessions. 

Mystique was careful with her approach. She didn’t want either of them to know that she was coming, and she certainly didn’t want anyone back on Krakoa to know where she was going. She left Krakoa through the London portal, and travelled covertly the rest of the way by car and train. She had already decided that she would approach Haller on his own; he’d be more predictable that way. Not that she relished the meeting. She had decided to do it in a public place, partly because she didn’t think that David would want to make a spectacle, and partly because she needed a reason not to make a spectacle all of her own. 

The last thing she needed was to let her anger take over. Not for such a crucial task as this. 

Her point of contact was easy to pick out; David might react poorly if she approached him too close to his home, but on certain Saturdays he would make the journey to the synagogue in Dundee, some twenty or so kilometres away. 

So she sat on a bench opposite the synagogue wearing the face of a pretty brunette and watched and waited. 

And waited. 

The service had finished. People had stopped filing out of the front door at least ten minutes ago. She’d seen him enter, where was he? 

“Would it be a cliché if I said ‘boo’?” 

Mystique jumped in shock, and immediately regretted it. Haller was standing behind the bench, dressed in the same dark blue suit that he’d worn into the synagogue, though he was no longer wearing his kippah. He walked around the bench and sat. 

“I’ve already read your mind, so there’s no reason to explain why you decided to creep on my religious practices. But non-telepaths usually like to say things out loud anyway, so feel free to make the request that I know you’re going to make.” His gaze was piercing. Those one-green-one-blue eyes didn’t miss anything. 

Mystique squared her shoulders to regain her composure, and said, “I want you to bring Destiny back. You did it for Ruth; Xavier told us at the last Quiet Council meeting. When… when I agreed to help Xavier and Magneto set up Krakoa, it was on the condition that they would bring Irene back. But it’s been four months, and so many have been resurrected, but she still hasn’t. They tell me to wait and wait and wait, but by now I’m certain that they never had any intention of bringing her back to life. So, please, bring her back. I can pay you–” 

“I don’t need money.” David said matter-of-factly. 

“I’m sure that there’s something you need. I’m willing to bargain.” 

He leaned back against the bench and looked at her with his head tilted. “Do you know what I value? What I really, really value?” He paused for a heartbeat. “Honesty. Maybe it’s because I’m autistic. Maybe it’s because I spent most of my childhood surrounded by doctors who insisted that the traumatic shit they were putting me through was helping me when it really, really wasn’t. Or maybe it’s because I’m a telepath and I can literally always tell when someone’s lying. So do me a favour and say the things that you haven’t said yet. Like the reason why you don’t think you should have to pay me anything at all.” 

Just like that, he had cut through all her planned speeches and persuasive arguments to the hot coil of anger underneath. She had to dig her nails into her palms just to avoid slipping back into her natural form. 

“You should do it for free.” she hissed. “You killed my fucking wife. My _wife_. Oh, I know that it was the Shadow King puppeting your body, but it was still your powers that did it.” 

Haller straightened. “Fuck you, Mystique. Fuck you sideways with a chainsaw, because you have no idea. No. Fucking. Idea. What it was like to be under the Shadow King’s control. He stripped away every ounce of autonomy I had. For months I was nothing. Just watching as he moved my body and used my powers. I liked Irene. She was the only person on Muir who was genuinely nice to me. I looked up to her, and the Shadow King knew that I looked up to her, so he had me kill her. I was thirteen. Do you have any idea what it’s like to go through that, at thirteen?” 

Mystique swallowed her pride. “I’m sorry.” She really shouldn’t have let her anger run away with her; he was her only chance to get Irene back, and he really had been only thirteen. “I still… I know that you probably don’t want to help me, but I’d do anything. I mean it. Anything.” 

“Let me make something clear to you, Darkholme. If Ruth asked me to bring Irene back so that she could have a great-grandmother again, I would do it gladly. If Rogue asked me to bring Irene back so that she could have both her mothers alive, I would do it for free. If a random stranger asked me to bring Irene back, well, I would be a little confused, but I would do it. But you… I think I don’t like you, and not because you decided to blame me for the Shadow King’s actions. You have done some really shitty things in your time on earth. You’ve killed. You’ve maimed. You’ve manipulated. So for you, it will not be free.” 

“Whatever you want, for heaven’s sake just name it.” 

David nodded. “To business. Here’s how it’s going to work. First of all, I like my privacy and I like the life that I have with Ruth here, so under no circumstances are you to bring Xavier or any of his associates to my door. Oh, I’m sure that they know where I’m living, but they don’t visit and I like it that way. Secondly, do not even think about having me sedated and telepathically controlled to use my powers.” 

“I wasn’t…” 

“Moira Mactaggert tried to do that, and it was how the Shadow King got into my head in the first place. Obviously I will need you to bring me a sample of Irene’s DNA and a Cerebro unit. The Cerebro unit will probably have trackers in it, and I really don’t want the X-Men to burst in on us during the resurrection, so you'll have to remove those or the deal is off. And now to payment: you will owe me a favour. When I ask for you to make good on it, you will make good.” 

A favour? All the stress and rehearsal she’d put into preparing herself for this confrontation with David, all the times she’d listed in her head the things that she’d be willing to give up to have Irene back again, and all Haller wanted was a favour. “That’s acceptable.” 

“And now we make it binding.” 

“I’m sorry?” 

He raised an eyebrow at her. “I don’t trust you that much. I’m going to use one of my alters to make the promise binding: I bring Irene back, and in the future when I ask for a favour, you fulfil your end of the promise. Besides, I thought it might be appropriate. The alter I’m going to use is Lady Delphic.” 

He paused. “And now you’re wondering why that’s appropriate. You see, Darkholme, the thing about dissociative identity disorder is that the alters are formed during traumatic life events. First it was when I watched my stepfather get killed. Then through all the other major traumas of my life, new alters have cropped up, and new powers with them. Lady Delphic is a precog and a truth-teller. She can make certain that you will honour our agreement. She’s relevant because she was formed from the trauma of watching Irene’s death.” 

It was too much. There was something about David that was overwhelming, like standing at the top of a cliff and watching a stormy sea. She remembered that he was the most powerful mutant on the planet, and really, she never should have forgotten it. Not when she was making a deal like this. Mystique stuck out her hand, and realised that it was shaking. “Deal.” 

David grimaced. “Fuck, I hate physical contact with strangers.” But he clasped her hand in his. Blue began to spread over his skin. At first she worried that it might be something to do with her mutation, but then David’s heterochromatic eyes faded to a blank white and she realised that it was just the physical manifestation of his alter. When he spoke, it was with a woman’s voice. The accent was English, but it still sounded a little like Irene: “The deal is the deal is the deal. When David asks for help, you will provide assistance.” Then the blue faded away from David’s skin, and he dropped her hand. “When you’ve got the DNA and Cerebro, call this number. I’ll bring her back to you.” 

Suddenly there was a number in Mystique’s head, and she knew instinctively that it was David’s phone number. 

David stood, and Mystique did as well. 

“I’ll be off now,” he told her. 

“Yes. I… thank you David. Thank you for agreeing to do this for me.” 

“Thank me when it’s done.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As far as I can tell, Mystique and David have hardly ever interacted in comics, and I figured that they’d rub each other the wrong way. Neither is in the habit of trusting easily.
> 
> In the comics a lot of David’s alliances are based off of favours, and I continued that here.
> 
> Lady Delphic is one of David’s comics canon alters (she turns up briefly in Legion Quest), and while it isn’t canon that she was formed by the trauma of Irene’s death, I thought that it made sense.
> 
> I wanted to make it clear that David is autistic, such as in the way that he doesn’t like physical contact with strangers. The fact that he’s also a powerful touch-telepath probably only makes the sensation worse for him.


	4. Chapter 4

David sat bolt upright, breathing rapidly. 

He didn’t often have nightmares, but when he did, his broken brain never held anything back. 

Her voice was muffled with drowsiness: “David?” 

He lay back down, his alters buzzing at the back of his skull. “Shit, sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.” 

“You’ve had a nightmare.” 

There was no hiding it from her. “Yep. One of the classic, straightjacket, padded-cell, doctors-injecting-me-with-unknown-substances nightmares. I’m okay now,” he added hastily. “I’m always okay once I’ve woken up.” He turned to her and cupped her face in his hand. “Used to be that dreams were the only way I could escape the horror show of my life, but now… my life now, there’s nothing I want to escape from. I guess my dreams are trying to compensate.” His phone buzzed, so he floated it to his hand telekinetically. “Oh, here we go.” He showed Ruth the text from an unknown number:` I have Cerebro and DNA. Will be arriving at 10am your time.`

He ran a hand through his hair. “One hour, twenty minutes until showtime. I’d better go shower.” 

*

There was a large suitcase on the back seat of the car Mystique was driving, and two other suitcases in the boot, along with the case that held the stolen Cerebro unit. 

“You’re travelling light,” said David. 

“Once this is done I won’t be going back to Krakoa.” she replied, hauling the Cerebro case out of the car with one arm and using the other to close the boot. 

David wrinkled his nose. “I don’t blame you.” 

He led her up the path to the front door, which opened at a wave of his hand. 

“Nice place you’ve got here,” Darkholme stated flatly. “How did you pay for it?” 

David shrugged. “I’m a precog. My girlfriend is a precog. We filled out a lottery ticket.” 

And Mystique was right. It was nice. Money wasn’t an object for them, so they’d bought a large plot of land and David had manipulated reality to create their dream house. He’d modelled it after Ruth’s mindscape, all airy high ceilings and pale grey stone and big windows to let in the view of the large untended garden that stood between the house and the high fences that surrounded the property. After all, they both valued their privacy. And neither of them cared much about mowing the lawn. 

It was the first time in his life that he’d lived in a place that he could call home. 

Mystique leaned in to look at the signature on one of the pictures on the wall. “I didn’t know that you painted, Haller.” 

“It relaxes me.” 

She sniffed. “You’ve got a good hand.” 

“I know.” 

She followed him into the living room, where Ruth sat waiting for them. The case was set on the carpet and the clasps holding it shut flicked open. The Cerebro unit inside had a few scratches and dents in it from where trackers had been removed, but it was still functional. 

“How old would you like her to be?” asked David. 

“What?” 

David sighed. It seemed an obvious question to ask, but apparently it hadn’t occurred to Mystique. “I brought Ruth back at the right age because I knew her body to the inch. But I don’t know enough about Irene’s body to do that, so I’ll be operating off of instinct, and I’ll need an idea of what age she should be at so that the body I make looks right.” 

“Forty-seven,” said Darkholme softly. “She always did say that she was at her best at forty-seven.” It seemed that Mystique was starting to grasp the magnitude of the fact that soon she would be seeing her wife again. 

“That’s a little specific, but I’ll try and aim for mid-to-late forties. I’ll have to do the mind-insert quickly, though. There’s a chance that dad might sense it and try to interfere. Now, the DNA.” He held out his hand. 

With a certain degree of reluctance, Mystique pulled off her skull-shaped hair clip and pressed a small switch on the side. A hidden panel flicked open, revealing a plaited lock of ash-grey hair. 

“So that’s – sorry, please – why you almost always wear that thing,” Ruth breathed. 

David took the plait in his hand and closed his eyes to focus. He’d been cautious when he made Ruth’s body, but now he knew what he was doing. He reached for one of his most powerful alters – the Origamist, a reality-changer – and once he had the alter under control he made a single, sure push against the fabric of the universe. 

A woman’s body unfolded from nothing in the middle of the room, wrapped in a loose grey dress. She was about Ruth’s height and in her late forties, with crow’s feet and laughter lines and her brown hair heavily streaked with grey. Her face was so familiar that it made David ache, all the shame and horror of the Shadow King’s possession on Muir Island coming back in a rush, but he couldn’t give in to it. He wasn’t done yet. 

He set Cerebro onto his head and searched for the file containing Irene’s consciousness. He found it, a tiny mote among thousands. David snatched it from the data bank and slid it home into Irene’s new brain. 

_David, what are you doing?_

Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck. His father had noticed that he had a Cerebro unit. Well, David had no time for a protracted telepathic battle. _Wouldn’t you like to know, old man?_ he replied, before pulling Cerebro off his head. Neither he nor Ruth could be tracked with Cerebro anymore, so they were safe for now, but there was still a chance that his dad would get curious and try to find out what he’d been doing. For the next few days he would tread carefully on the psychic plane. 

David looked down at Irene’s body, lying on the carpet. He could see the chest rising and falling, feel the mind that was only just remembering how to wake up. 

Irene Adler sat up and rubbed her head. “I had no idea that resurrection would give me a headache.” 

Mystique dropped to her knees and crushed Irene into a hug. “I missed you. God, I missed you so much.” 

They stayed like that for some time, David and Ruth shooting each other looks over the tops of their heads, because frankly, once a hug lasts for longer than two minutes things get awkward for everyone else in the room. 

Eventually the two women did pull away from each other slightly. Irene smiled at her wife fondly. “Look at you. Big strong Raven shedding tears over little old me.” 

Raven wiped her eyes and smiled back. “Shut up, you old hag.” 

“Oh, okay – thank you,” said Ruth, “You’re one of those couples who flirt by insulting each other.” 

Irene held out one hand imperiously. “Come here, you.” Ruth knelt by her great-grandmother and was pulled into a hug. After a moment, Irene leaned back and turned her blind eyes on David. “You too, young man.” 

Anxiety tightened in his chest, sudden and icy. “Irene, I…” 

She gestured impatiently. “Don’t be ridiculous; come here!” Slowly, he knelt down by her. When it came, the hug was warm and comforting. David had never known his grandparents, but he thought that perhaps this was what a grandmother’s hug would feel like. “Did you ever forgive yourself?” she whispered. 

“No, never.” 

“Well you should. For an intelligent boy you can be a fool sometimes. Really, you’re smart enough to know that nothing Farouk did was your fault.” 

It was then that David remembered something, and he pulled away sharply. “Crap, you should both be wearing telepathy blockers. Last thing we need is dad to track you down with Cerebro.” He went over to a side table and rummaged in a draw for a few minutes before he found a pair of slim bracelets, which he handed to Raven and Irene. “Wear them constantly for at least the next few weeks, just until dad loses interest in you.” 

“And I suppose we can stay here for a few nights?” asked Irene. 

He shrugged. “Sure. We have plenty of bedrooms.” 

Ruth laughed. “And do you – pardon – want to explain why we have so many bedrooms?” 

“No, but you clearly do,” he said fondly. 

She grinned at him. “At first, David said we should get a cottage, but – please, sorry – then I pointed out that he would definitely end up bringing home, yes, a bunch of mutant kids that needed our help, so I said we might as well get a place with room to house them.” 

“And you were right,” he said, sitting down beside her and putting his arm around her waist. “But in my defence, Alice only stayed with us three weeks. And she was perfectly well-behaved…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must admit, I never really liked the skull that Mystique wears in her hair. But for this fic, I knew that I wanted David to get Irene’s DNA from a lock of hair that Raven had kept, and then it struck me. The Victorians were super into two things:
> 
> 1\. Keeping locks of hair from their loved ones.  
> 2\. Memento mori themed jewellery.
> 
> Since Irene and Raven canonically met and fell in love during Victorian times, it only made sense to have Raven’s skull accessory as the place where she keeps a lock of Irene’s hair. It keeps her wife close.
> 
> Also, I had Irene resurrected into her forties, because a woman’s worth isn’t determined by her youth.
> 
> To get a look at what Ruth’s mindscape looks like, check out the last issue of X-Men Legacy (2012).
> 
> David probably wanted a cottage at first because it would remind him of the cabin where he lived in the Himalayas at the start of X-Men Legacy (2012), but anyone who’s read X-Men Legacy will also know that David inherited Charles’ ‘adopt and mentor mutant children’ gene in a big way. Ruth knows David well enough to know that sooner or later David would come home with a small mutant kiddie following close behind.


	5. Chapter 5

**An email sent from Mystique to the entire Quiet Council of Krakoa:**

` Dear all. I, Raven Darkholme, mutant name Mystique, hereby resign my position as a member of the Quiet Council of Krakoa. I wish to spend more time with my wife.`

**A (carefully worded) email sent from Professor X to Mystique (after much debate among the Quiet Council):**

`Raven, this certainly comes as a surprise. Perhaps you could come to Krakoa to discuss this with the Council. `

` Your sincerely,  `

` Charles Xavier | Professor X`

**A reply sent from Mystique to Professor X:**

`Next Tuesday at 3pm. At least four members of the Council present or we leave immediately. No dirty tricks. `

` Signed,  `

` Raven Darkholme | Mystique  `

` Irene Adler | Destiny  `

` David Haller (No mutant name)  `

` Ruth Aldine | Blindfold`

*

Raven had been very thorough in preparing them for the negotiations that they would soon engage in with the Quiet Council. She had even organised which clothes they would be wearing. 

David smoothed down the lines of his suit. It was a dark blue two-piece, and in Ruth’s unbiased opinion he looked amazing. She decided that as soon as they got back home, it would be coming off. Or maybe it wouldn’t. She was a little conflicted over the benefits of him keeping it on versus taking it off. “Y’know,” he said to Raven, “When you said you had clothes for us to wear I thought it would be spandex. And I’m so glad that it isn’t.” 

Raven was wearing an elegant white three-piece suit that looked stunning next to Irene’s dove gray three-piece. “Everyone on the Council will be wearing their ‘superhero’ outfits, and we need to show them that we stand separate. Besides, these are bulletproof and fireproof. My tailor is excellent.” 

“Speaking of which, how did you get my measurements? Did you shapeshift into me and have them measure you, or something?” 

“That’s exactly what I did.” 

_I’m not sure if I like my suit_ , Ruth telepathically confided to David. 

_Don’t worry, you look lovely_. Her suit was a purple two-piece with a matching blindfold. 

They’d done so much preparation that they didn’t have anything else to say to each other. 

As a show of respect, they had agreed to enter Krakoa via one of the portals. David teleported them to the one in Jerusalem for no reason other than the fact that the Council might waste their time trying to figure out why the four of them would want to arrive via Jerusalem. 

They walked through the portal in pairs, Irene on Raven’s arm and Ruth on David’s. She tried to picture herself walking through Krakoa to the Council Chamber with David beside her and found herself liking the idea. She’d hardly told anyone about their relationship, so it felt good to be able to publicly show that they were together. 

_Nervous?_ he asked her. 

_A bit_ , she admitted, _but not as much as I thought I’d be._

As they emerged on Krakoa, an electronic voice read out their names and their mutant names, and Ruth felt David flinch as the voice named him as ‘Legion’. 

David turned slightly to look up at where Doug Ramsey sat near the gateway. “Doug, I’m gonna give you a full three minutes to delete the name ‘Legion’ from my file. I don’t go by that name. I haven’t gone by that name in years. I fucking hate that name. Do you want to piss me off? Because that name pisses me off.” She knew what he was doing: leaning into his reputation as dangerous and unpredictable, just so that they would stop calling him by the name that labelled him as dangerous and unpredictable. 

Ramsey paled. “It’s… uh… it’s been a while, David.” 

“It has,” said David acidly, before turning to follow Raven and Irene up the path that led to the Council Chamber. 

*

They were discreetly followed as they walked from the portal to the Council Chamber. The closer they got, the more Ruth became aware of David’s breathing; he was taking strong, slow breaths, probably in an attempt to keep calm. Just before they entered they nudged each other telepathically in a silent show of support. 

When they entered the Council Chamber, Ruth thought she might be sick from the anxiety. It looked exactly how it had done in the image that David had projected into their minds so that they knew what to expect: a light, airy chamber with four tables arranged in a circle and three chairs at each table. 

Not all the chairs were filled. Professor X and Magneto were there, as well as Emma Frost and Nightcrawler. It was exactly as she, David, and Irene had predicted. There had also been a possible future where Mr Sinister was also present, but it had been much less likely than the future that had become their present. Professor X and Magneto were sat at one of the tables, and Emma Frost and Nightcrawler each had a table to themselves, leaving one of the tables unattended. 

“Welcome, all of you,” said Charles Xavier. He gestured to the central space between the four tables. “Please, let us begin.” 

Mystique shook her head. “We know that under that patch of earth there’s a tunnel that Krakoa can open up to the depths of the island. I was there when you imprisoned Sabretooth, remember, Charles? So no, I don’t think so.” 

David gestured and one of the chairs from Emma Frost’s table slid over so that the unattended table now had four chairs by it, and the four of them sat. 

They had decided that Irene would be the one to do the talking. Ruth’s stammer and David’s dissociative identity disorder meant that neither of them would be taken seriously, and Mystique had been a founding member of the Council which she now opposed. 

Ruth watched her great-grandmother as she tucked a strand of hair back into place, smiled benevolently, and began. “This island claims to stand for mutant equality, and yet you forbade the resurrection of precogs. My friends and I object to that, and we have a list of terms that I will now read out.” 

“Terms?” said Magneto indignantly. “Haller restrained Charles so that he could bring Blindfold back, Mystique stole a Cerebro unit to bring you back, and now the four of you dare to come to us with _terms_?” 

“Yeah,” said David. “Yeah we do.” He waved a hand in Irene’s direction. “Carry on, Destiny.” 

Irene gave the room another smile. “As I was saying. Our terms our these: first, neutrality. We do not owe Krakoa anything and Krakoa owes us nothing. If we need aid from Krakoa then we will do something for Krakoa in return, and vice versa. But we owe Krakoa nothing, and Krakoa will make no claims on us. Secondly, an end to the precog ban. Myself, Blindfold, and David looked into the future and discovered the reason why you don’t want precogs on this island, and the reason is, frankly, bullshit. It’s discrimination plain and simple. Thirdly, Krakoa does not monitor our movements or threaten us with violence. Fourthly, Charles Xavier will make no claims or alterations to the living situation of David Haller.” 

“What?” said Professor X quietly, staring across the tables at David. 

David looked back coolly, though Ruth could sense how stressed he was. “I won’t be eighteen for another two and a half months. Until then, you’re still my legal guardian and I don’t want you to do _anything_ to me with that power. You’ve screwed me over enough for one lifetime.” 

Irene gave her closing statement. “As a show of good faith, we will return the stolen Cerebro unit once these terms are agreed to.” 

Nightcrawler shifted in his seat. “Mom, are you sure that you want to quit Krakoa?” 

“Certain,” Raven replied. “This island promised me my wife back in return for my allegiance and then never honoured the bargain. Though once Irene and I get our own place, you will, of course, be welcome to visit.” 

“I understand why Mystique would want to leave,” drawled Emma Frost, “And I understand why Destiny wouldn’t want to stay. And as for that little maniac,” she said, looking at David from under her eyelashes, “I don’t want him anywhere near Krakoa. But Ruth, darling, don’t throw your life away over a boy. There’s still a place for you here.” 

Suddenly all eyes were on Ruth. 

She hated it when everyone in a room was looking at her. 

She knew what they were expecting, too: quiet, meek little Blindfold, stammering away, throwing herself at the only boy who would show her some affection, but so easily guided that all she needed was a little push to make her run back to the adults. And she was sick of it. 

“I know – please, please – that you’re all probably expecting me to be grateful, yes, to be given a chance to live on Krakoa.” Her voice sounded small and quiet in the chamber, so she summoned her daring and spoke louder. “After all, you’re all very impressive – yes. Professor X and Magneto and Nightcrawler and the White Queen,  pardon. But then I remember that all of you were willing to sit back – sorry, yes, sorry – and let me stay dead while hundreds of other mutants got resurrected. And I think most of you would be happy – no no no – if David was locked up somewhere in the dark for the rest of his life.” She turned her blindfolded face towards Emma Frost. “Thank you, Miss Frost, if it weren’t for David I wouldn’t even – please – have a life to throw away. And I don’t think that I would ruin any part of my life by choosing to spend it with him,  sorry, no. I love him. He loves me. That’s all, and it’s more than enough.” 

Her heart was pounding, but when David squeezed her hand she smiled. 

“Come on,” said David. “All these terms require is for Krakoa to do nothing. So agree to them, and leave us alone.” 

“What if we don’t agree?” asked Magneto. 

David’s face split into a grin. He let go of Ruth’s hand and leaned forward over the table. “Agree to the terms. Or. Else.” He cocked his head. “You all know what I’m capable of. All it would take is a little twist of reality, and suddenly Magneto’s back in the Brotherhood headquarters, dad and Kurt are back in Westchester, Frost is… I don’t know, I’m picturing a hotel room with uncomfortably erotic decorations. And none of you would remember Krakoa. Neither would anyone else on the planet. Only me, Ruth, Irene, and Raven. I could destroy Krakoa with a thought and without taking a single life. So agree to the terms. Or else.” He leaned back again. 

Professor X looked at David for what felt like a long time but might have only been seconds. “Very well. We agree to your terms. All of them. David, might I speak with you for a moment, privately?” 

“Sure.” David flicked his hand in the air and the stolen Cerebro unit dropped into the space between the four tables where it rolled to a stop on the ground. He stood, walked around the tables to his father, and glanced back at Ruth. _If he kidnaps me, do me a favour and rescue me, yeah?_ She knew that he was only half-joking with her. 

_You know I will_ , she replied.


	6. Chapter 6

“You look well, David.” was the first thing that his father said to him once he had led them both into a small, unfurnished anteroom of the Council Chamber. There were no windows, and the lights were low. 

David wasn’t sure what to make of the comment, or of his expression, so he chose not to reply. They were both keeping their minds tightly shielded. 

His father made another attempt at starting the conversation. “Your signature on that letter… does it mean that you aren’t going by Legion anymore?” 

“Mutant names are meant to be empowering. That name never empowered me.” David paused, then decided to plough on. “Look, if you’re waiting for an apology about restraining you so that I could bring Ruth back, you won’t get one.” 

“I didn’t know that she was your lover,” his father replied softly. 

“Even if I’d told you, you still wouldn’t have agreed to a resurrection.” 

His father nodded. “That’s true, but… David, you were grieving. I would have comforted you.” 

It took all of David’s willpower to hold back a sneer. “Forgive me if I don’t believe that.” 

“You know that it wasn’t just Ruth, it was all precogs, it was nothing personal…” 

“It was personal to me!” David shouted. “I loved her and I lost her and you would have done fuck all to change that. And the reason… the three of us, me and Ruth and Irene, we looked to the future and figured out why you have the precog ban. You don’t know if Krakoa will succeed, and you don’t want anyone to know that there’s a chance of failure. It’s fucking cowardly. Don’t you and Erik and Moira have any faith in yourselves?” 

His father shook his head. “We didn’t want to risk it being generally known. I… I would like to make you an offer, David.” 

Huh. Well, he hadn’t expected that. Good to know that even with telepathy and precognition, life could still surprise him. “I’m listening.” 

“You resurrected Ruth and Irene all on your own. On Krakoa, we need five highly specialised mutants, and even then, one of the mutants is just there to increase the power level of the other four. But you… how did you do it? After so long battling for control of your own mind, how did you finally get such fine control over your abilities?” 

David looked into his father’s eyes and felt no faith in him whatsoever. “You’ve broken my trust more times than I can count. I’m not going to tell you anything about how I reached this stability. Though I will say this: right now, Ksenia is telling me to rip out your throat. Cyndi is telling me to burn you alive. Suzie in Sunshine wants to give you a hug, Compass Rose wants to teleport to Chandilar, and the Chronodon wants to pause time so that I can get away from you. My alters are all still here. I’m not cured, and that’s as much as I’m going to let you know. Now what’s this offer?” 

And then, shock of all shocks, Charles Xavier smiled at him. “Stay on Krakoa. You can live with me in the House of X, or get your own place. Help bring our people back from death. In return, I’ll add you and Ruth to the resurrection programme. You’ll never lose each other again.” 

For the barest of moments, David wanted to say yes. He wanted to agree to the offer, and fall into his father’s arms and weep and live on Krakoa and be loved and never feared for the rest of his life. But he knew it wouldn’t be. And this new offer from his father wouldn’t wash out the past. “So you finally want me,” he breathed, “Now that I’m stable, now that I’m the closest thing to sane that I’ll ever be. You don’t want me because I’m your son, you want me because I can be an _asset_.” He took a step forward, and his father moved back slightly. “I’m nobody’s asset. You’d better remember that. And remember this: I don’t trust you. I will never trust you. I will never accept your offer.” 

Now that David had started speaking his mind, he felt like he couldn’t stop. “Men like you always say that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and then you trample the few in your wake in order to build your perfect world for the many. Well, I’m one of the ones that you trampled. One of the freaks. One of the monsters. One of the few. And trust me, one day you will have trampled so many that you’ll take a look at yourself and realise that you’ve become a monster. A principled monster, yes, but a monster all the same. You feature in all of my nightmares: turning away, ordering procedures, all those times that I disappointed you…” 

“David, I –” 

“I’m not done. In any successful nation, the needs of the many should support the needs of the few. If the needs of the few aren’t being met – the disabled, the mentally ill, gay people, whatever – if they aren’t being protected the same way that the many are, then the needs of the many aren’t properly being fulfilled. Krakoa might keep the majority of mutants safe, but not the minorities. Not precogs, who will die and never be brought back. And not mutants like me, mutants with mental health issues and problems with control, who everyone’s scared of. Fucking _Apocalypse_ is treated like less of a villain than I am. All this adds up to is the fact that there’s something empty in Krakoa’s soul. Sooner or later, that will come back to hurt you. And, _fuck_ , even after everything you’ve put me through, I still don’t want to see you hurt. And I certainly don’t want to see you become a monster.” 

His father said nothing for a very long time. David waited, willing to wait for whatever Charles Xavier had to say to him. It would probably just be scolding framed like a lecture, but he could live with that. 

In the end, his father sighed and said, “I read somewhere that once you become a parent, you’ll have sleepless nights for the rest of your life.” 

David threw his arms up. “Fine. I get it. My DID is messy and my powers scare you. Whatever. That’s old fucking news.” 

“No, David, you don’t understand. It’s worth it. Every stressful day and sleepless night. Every single one of them was worth it just to have you stand in front of me and say that. When you were younger I never dreamed that you would grow up to be half as strong as that, half as principled. There aren’t a dozen people on the planet with the spine to talk to me like that. I don’t know what happened to make you become the young man that I see before me, but I’m glad that it did.” He reached out to take David’s hand, but David drew back out of reach. “Your mother and I, we’ve been talking. Talking about things that we did wrong…” 

“Must’ve been a long conversation.” 

“Stay on Krakoa, David. We could be a family, you and I…” 

“And Erik?” 

His father paled. “I don’t know what you mean.” 

“I can smell his cologne on you. And honestly, I don’t care who you date as long as it doesn’t result in any siblings. Because I will personally kidnap any future children of yours and bring them up myself instead of watch them be fathered by you.” It hadn’t even occurred to David that that was how he felt about siblings, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew that they were true. Charles Xavier couldn’t be trusted to care for his own children. 

“Then… not a family, but as allies? I want you safe, David, and Krakoa is the place where I can best ensure that.” 

David closed his eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again and spoke the truth that he’d been holding back for years: “I’m afraid of you. You don’t scare me, but I am afraid of you.” 

His father reeled in shock. “I… I don’t think I understand…” 

“You don’t scare me because I’ve grown so strong that you couldn’t possibly count as a threat. But I am still afraid of you. Afraid because you hurt me in the past and I let you, and afraid that if I let myself be near you for too long I’ll let you start hurting me again and I’ll keep letting you hurt me for the rest of my life. I think that I’ll always be afraid of you, even though I’m not scared anymore.” His hands were shaking, and he hoped that his father didn’t notice. It was one thing to be nervous, quite another for people around you to know that you were freaking out. 

“I’m sorry,” said Charles Xavier, in a voice that sounded like heartbreak. “I’m so sorry for all of it.” 

“That won’t erase the past.” 

“I know, I know. What will you do now?” 

He shrugged. “Finish my degree. Do a doctorate, maybe. And after that… I do have a plan, but you’ll have to wait to find out like all of the other plebs.” 

His father drew closer and squeezed his shoulder. “Whatever you do, know that I love you. And that I’m always, always proud of you.” 

David started to cry; tears that had been threatening for minutes finally spilling over. His father moved closer, but David backed up and pushed him away. 

“You can visit,” said Charles Xavier. “Visit me, whenever you like. We can talk, just talk. No obligations.” 

His tears wiped away, David straightened up again. “I’ll think about it.” 

“You can bring Ruth too, if you like. I’m very glad that you’ve found someone to love you.” 

“I’ll think about that, too.” He started to head for the door, but paused and turned back to look at his dad. “A word of advice, before I go. Right now, you’re trying to build the perfect world. I think you ought to settle for a world that’s good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> David’s ‘many versus few’ speech was one of those golden moments in writing when it came to me all at once and hardly needed any revisions.
> 
> I also knew that I wouldn’t ‘cure’ David of his DID. That wouldn’t be right. The alters he lists are all comics canon, and their powers are:
> 
> Ksenia – ionic claws  
> Cyndi – pyrokinesis  
> Suzie in Sunshine – emotional manipulation, and converting emotions into telekinetic power  
> Compass Rose – teleportation  
> Chronodon – stopping time
> 
> Things between Charles and David are complicated to say the least. They both love each other deeply, but Charles has hurt David, and David can’t risk ever putting himself into Charles’ power because Charles might just end up hurting him again.
> 
> I also don’t think that this will be then end of their father-son relationship. Charles’ friendship/bromance/romance with Erik is enough to prove that he can have a different ideology to someone but still love and respect them, and I think that Charles might even _like_ the fact that David’s worldview conflicts with his own.


	7. Epilogue

They were having tea in David and Ruth’s kitchen. 

“So,” said Irene, “Once us two move out, what are you young people going to do?” 

“I’m not sure,” said Ruth. 

“I’ve got a few ideas,” said David. 

*

Many mutants chose to escape the mutantphobia in their home countries and live on Krakoa, but not all. Some were happy in their home towns, and some were less happy but still didn’t want to leave. And if they didn’t want to leave then there was still a way to get help without Krakoa: Mutants in Need. 

If you were homeless, then Mutants in Need ran mutant-only shelters. If your parents kicked you out then Mutants in Need would set you up with mutant-friendly foster parents. If your powers were difficult to control then Mutants in Need could arrange for training. If your school tried to kick you out for being a mutant then Mutants in Need could help you find a lawyer. 

There were sometimes humans with placards outside the Mutants in Need headquarters in London, and once there was even a bomb threat, but by and large, most of the mutantphobes stayed away. None of them wanted to mess with the young man who ran the charity. 

Dr David Haller (mutant name Gestalt) ran the charity full-time, and for most kids staying in a Mutants in Need children’s home, he seemed pretty intimidating at first. They would whisper in their rooms about the time he killed the Elder Gods and the time he fought the Nimrod sentinels, and how once he had even bested his father, the great Professor X, in single telepathic combat. 

But after a while, they would realise that he wasn’t that scary after all. Most of the time his eyes weren’t even glowing. 

If you had a nightmare then he would be the first one outside your room to check that you were alright, and if you asked him nicely he might even read you a bedtime story, and if you asked him really, really nicely (preferably in a group with all your friends), he might even let you stay out after curfew and would teach you the names of all the constellations in English, French, and Hebrew. 

The staff at Mutants in Needs knew David even better: they knew that he loved his wife very much, and that he and Ruth were discussing the possibility of having children of their own but weren’t sure if they were ready yet. They also knew that, as complicated as his relationship with his father was, Professor X was in a few of David’s wedding photos, so perhaps things weren’t quite as strained as they had once been. 

David Haller and Ruth Aldine made a lovely young couple, and a few times a year they would meet up with a lovely older couple; two women, one of whom looked a little like Ruth. During these casual meetings they would reminisce about events years past and years in the future, and talk about family and love and destiny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In X-Men Legacy, David suggests that he might start up a school of his own with better ideals than the Xavier Institute, so I felt like him starting a charity wasn’t too much of a stretch.
> 
> Those who have read the ending of X-Men Legacy will know why he chooses the mutant name Gestalt.
> 
> David didn’t do a Ph.D. purely because he wanted to. He did it because his mental illness means that he needs to go the extra mile to get people to respect him, and having a few letters after his name will help with that. Something that comes up a lot in comics but isn’t followed through is that David is actually really intelligent. It just gets overlooked because he never had much of a conventional education and he uses most of his brainpower to deal with his mental illness or take down mutantphobes.
> 
> One of the repeated themes in X-Men Legacy was that David objected to the fact that the X-Men offered relatively little choice in the way that mutants could get help. His charity offers more options and less restriction. 
> 
> I also think that Krakoa as a concept doesn’t fully work. Isolationism and segregation is no way to end discrimination against minorities.
> 
> In the comics, it’s repeatedly shown that David is good with kids. When he and Ruth do decide to become parents, he’s going to be a brilliant father.


End file.
